Mount Pleasant to get new shopping center

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Grand Rapids-based Encore Development Group LLC is planning a shopping center of 20 to 30 stores on Bluegrass Road south of Mount Pleasant and east of the Indian Hills shopping area in Isabella County's Union Township.

Mount Pleasant-area shoppers who drive to Midland for clothes, books and Starbucks coffee will have a new choice in 2006.

Grand Rapids-based Encore Development Group LLC is planning a shopping center of 20 to 30 stores on Bluegrass Road south of Mount Pleasant and east of the Indian Hills shopping area in Isabella County's Union Township. Plans call for a free-standing, big-box retailer on each side of the shopping center and, in between, a department store and other stores in adjoining spaces, said Jay Barnes, one of three partners in Encore. Restaurants would be developed in their own separate buildings.

The shopping center, which hasn't yet been named, won't be a mall, Barnes stressed. Midland Mall General Manager Todd Huhn said his mall doesn't keep figures on shoppers' hometowns, but he acknowledged the mall draws shoppers from the west. There's no way Encore can put together the collection of stores the Midland Mall has assembled over the years, he said.

"The place we are now, I don't think it would affect us that much," Huhn said. "Our main draw's going to be from a lot closer in from Mount Pleasant."

Mall officials, too, are looking for new tenants. Huhn said the mall's new plus-size retailer CJ Banks and the young-adult clothing store Hot Topic will open in November at the latest. An expanded and relocated Verizon store will open in two weeks.

With a growing Central Michigan University close by, Mount Pleasant needs a nationwide book retailer, and Encore hopes to find one. The company also wants to attract businesses such as Kohl's, Starbucks, Menard's and Best Buy.

Barnes said Encore has commitments from six or seven stores and that "we will be getting" restaurants as well as stores that sell home improvement goods, electronics and books.

Barnes said his company controls 86 acres of land in a square shape near Bluegrass Road, although he wouldn't say exactly what arrangement his company has for developing the property. Encore's master plan for the shopping center would use nearly all the land, he said.

"We're intending Bluegrass to be the new main retail corridor," he said. "Mission is completely saturated, it's completely developed."

Encore has worked on the idea for a year, Barnes said. He praised Union Township for paving the way with reasonable requirements and timetables instead of fighting development as some communities have.

"They understand that this is a commercial project and they want to see it developed the right way," he said.

Encore is nearly ready to unveil drawings for the site, Barnes said. The land already is zoned for general business use, said township Zoning Administrator Woody Woodruff. If Encore creates a cluster development in which each business is on its own land, with shared parking, the township would approve plans for stores one by one. But, depending on the number and sizes of stores in a single building, Encore might need a special-use permit from the township planning commission.